The information on this blog about the corruption in America's courts will disgust and frighten you and propel you into a world of racketeering, greed, larceny, malicious prosecution, and outrageous disdain for due process, the Rule of Law, the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights and Professional Responsibility Standards, Rules and Statutes. This is the Unified Court System of New York State. You will be a victim unless you speak up and protest. by Betsy Combier

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (pictured above), announced that ALEXANDER KAPLAN, formerly a Brooklyn-based real estate lawyer and the owner of a title insurance company, was sentenced on Friday, June 17, 2011, in Manhattan federal court to 46 months in prison by United States District Judge RICHARD J. HOLWELL for his role in a multimillion dollar mortgage fraud scheme. KAPLAN was convicted, on February 6, 2009, of eighteen counts of mortgage fraud after a two-week jury trial.

According to the evidence presented at trial and statements made in court:

From late 2004 through January 2007, KAPLAN and his coconspirators obtained hundreds of mortgage and home equity loans by submitting loan applications and supporting documents to various lenders that contained false information about, among other things, the prospective borrower’s employment, income, and intent to reside in the property in question, as well as the fair market value of the property.

The fraud also involved paying individuals who fit a certain financial profile to act as phony purchasers, or “straw buyers,” of the target properties. KAPLAN’s co-conspirators then prepared and submitted false and misleading information concerning the straw buyers’ current residences, employment, income, assets, and existing debt. False documentation, such as bank statements and proof of income, were also created and submitted to the lenders.
In addition, KAPLAN and his co-conspirators sought mortgages and home equity loans at values that were in excess of properties’ actual sale prices and, therefore, the properties’ true market values. To support applications for loans in excess of the properties’ market values, they procured artificially inflated appraisals of the market value of the target properties. Using these false appraisals, KAPLAN’s co-conspirators received mortgages and other loans in excess of the actual sale price of the properties securing the loans. The difference between the appraised value of the property and the property’s actual sale price represented, in part, the profits from the scheme.

KAPLAN’s role in the scheme largely centered on the purchase of a block of ten rent-regulated condominium apartments at 243 West 98 Street, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan th (“the Apartments“). Over the course of two separate days in January 2006, KAPLAN served as the attorney for the buyers and the banks in the closings of the Apartments. He conspired with others to obtain mortgages, based on false statements and material omissions, to finance 100 percent of the purchase price of the Apartments.

In his capacity as the buyers’ attorney and bank attorney, KAPLAN presided over the closings, and obtained signed and completed false documents, including, among other things, loan application documents, on which each of the buyers indicated that the Apartment was to be a “primary residence,” and false affidavits stating that the buyers intended to occupy the Apartments. He submitted these fraudulent documents to the lenders.

Almost all of the Apartments were then resold, or “flipped,” to straw-buyers within a matter of months after their initial purchases. The purported sales prices for each of the flips was almost twice the initial purchase price, and KAPLAN’s co-conspirators obtained almost $13 million in additional loans on the Apartments by submitting false information and documents to various lenders. KAPLAN served as both the buyer’s and seller’s attorney for each of these flips, drafting sham contracts of sale and other necessary documentation. He also served as the attorney for the banks at the closings of certain loans obtained in connection with the flips of the Apartments.

In addition to the prison term, Judge HOLWELL sentenced KAPLAN, 36, of Brooklyn, New York, to three years of supervised release.

Mr. BHARARA praised the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New York City Police Department, and the United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also thanked the New York State Attorney General’s Office for its outstanding work in the investigation.

This case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Organized Crime Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys AVI WEITZMAN and KATHERINE R. GOLDSTEIN are in charge of the prosecution.

LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that attorney ALEXANDER KAPLAN was found guilty today of participating in a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme. KAPLAN was found guilty, after a two-week jury trial in Manhattan federal court, on all eighteen counts in the Indictment against him. According to the evidence at trial, statements made in open court, and the Indictment:

From late 2004 through January 2007, KAPLAN and his coconspirators, using phony purchasers, or “straw buyers,” obtained hundreds of mortgage and home equity loans by submitting to various lenders loan applications and supporting documents that contained false information about, among other things, the prospective borrower’s employment, income and assets, and intent to reside in the property in question, as well as the fair market value of the property.

In addition, KAPLAN and his co-conspirators, using artificially inflated appraisals, sought and obtained mortgages and home equity loans at values that were in excess of properties’ actual sale prices and, thus, the properties’ true market values. The difference between the appraised value and actual sale price of the property represented, in the part, the profits from the scheme.

KAPLAN participated in the scheme by acting as a lawyer for the straw buyers and providing misleading and false information to the lenders. As shown at trial, concerning a block of ten rent-regulated condominium apartments at 243 West 98 th Street, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (“the Apartments”), KAPLAN served as the attorney for the buyers and the banks in the closings of sales of the Apartments, supported by 100% financing. None of the documents submitted to the lenders in these transactions disclosed that: (1) certain buyers were seeking loans to purchase more than one Apartment as a “primary residence;” (2) each of the Apartments was already occupied by a tenant, and therefore not suitable for a primary residence; or (3) the Apartments were subject to rent regulation laws that precluded the buyer from charging the reported rents.

KAPLAN presided over the closings, and obtained for submission to the lender signed and completed false documents, including, among other things, loan application documents, on which each of the buyers indicated that the Apartment was to be a “primary residence,” and false affidavits stating that the buyers intended to occupy the Apartments.

Almost all of the Apartments were then resold, or “flipped,” to straw buyers within a matter of months. The purported sales prices for each of the flips was almost twice the initial purchase price, and KAPLAN’s co-conspirators obtained almost $13 million in additional loans on the Apartments by submitting false information and documents to the lenders.

KAPLAN served as both the buyer’s and seller’s attorney in connection with the flip transactions, drafting sham contracts of sale and other documentation. KAPLAN also served as the attorney for the banks in connection with certain of the flip transactions, and distributed a portion of the loan proceeds to his co-conspirators.

KAPLAN, of Brooklyn, New York, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit bank, wire, and mail fraud; six counts of bank fraud; eight counts of wire fraud; and three counts of mail fraud. The conspiracy count carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years and a fine of $1 million or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the offense. Each of the substantive bank, wire, and mail fraud counts carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years and a fine of $1 million or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the offense.

KAPLAN is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge RICHARD J. HOLWELL on May 1, 2009.

Of the 26 other defendants originally charged with KAPLAN in United States v. Aleksander Lipkin, et al., 25 have pleaded guilty. The case against JOHN CIAFALO remains pending.

Mr. DASSIN praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York City Police Department, and Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Assistant United States Attorneys JONATHAN B. NEW, KATHERINE R. GOLDSTEIN, and AVI WEITZMAN are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges and allegations contained in the Indictment against CIAFALO are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

N.Y. Attorney Convicted of Mortgage Fraud
Mark Hamblett All Articles
New York Law Journal
February 09, 2009

The bogus world of a Brooklyn, N.Y., attorney who built a profitable business on title insurance while earning high fees on real estate closings came crashing down on Friday as a federal jury convicted him in a subprime mortgage scam.

Alexander M. Kaplan, 34, of Lerner & Kaplan, sat stoically at the defense table while a jury of 10 women and two men pronounced him guilty on all 18 counts in an indictment charging him with conspiracy and bank, mail and wire fraud.

Kaplan, who testified in his own defense, is scheduled to be sentenced May 1 by Southern District Judge Richard Holwell.

The verdict was a victory for Assistant U.S. Attorneys Avi Weitzman and Jonathan New, who persuaded the jury that Kaplan played a pivotal role in a wide-ranging conspiracy that ripped off lenders of millions of dollars.

Kaplan's role, they proved, was to keep lenders in the dark by representing the bank, the buyer and the seller in transactions where mortgage brokers, particularly lead actor Alexander Lipkin, would use the identities of innocent straw buyers to obtain huge loans on properties. Sometimes, they would flip the properties within weeks using even more phony documents.

Weitzman told the jury during summations in the two-week trial that Kaplan was "a liar and fraudster," who "engaged in a massive fraud that was perpetrated by all these people.

"He did so by telling lies to banks over and over again. He lied about who the real purchasers were and he lied about the amount of money he disbursed from the loan proceeds," Weitzman said. "His lies were all intended to protect his criminal partners and to make sure the real estate transactions looked legitimate."

Kaplan was one of 27 people indicted in the conspiracy. All of the other defendants except one have pleaded guilty, including Lipkin who admitted to guilt in two schemes in June 2008. He has yet to be sentenced.

The first was part of a foreclosure "rescue scheme" whereby Lipkin induced distressed homeowners to transfer the deeds in their homes to straw buyers who would supposedly "save" their homes and promise to return the deed to the homeowners.

In the end, Lipkin and his cohorts, using the straw buyers, would take out millions of dollars in loans on the property. They would then default on those loans, leaving both the banks and the straw buyers damaged.

The second scheme concerned subprime mortgages. Lipkin and others submitted applications for millions of dollars to lenders using fraudulent documents, a scheme that cost the lenders more than $4.5 million.

Kaplan, the prosecutors said, was one of several dirty lawyers who helped facilitate these plots, including the signature scam in the indictment: the purchase of a block of apartments at 243 West 98th Street in Manhattan where Lipkin and several others, including Kaplan, never disclosed to the bank that the units were occupied and under rent control. Some tenants were paying as little as $393 a month.

Kaplan made between $850 to $1,100 in fees per closing and much more in title fees, Weitzman said, and he made "tens of thousands" in fees on the West 98th Street deal.

AN UPHILL BATTLE

Defense lawyer Diarmuid White of White & White in Manhattan, was faced with an uphill battle. It did not help when his client took the witness stand and was unable to remember key details, claimed paralegals handled a good deal of the work, and conceded he did not file income taxes in 2006 and then blamed his accountant.

White's strategy was to portray Kaplan as an ambitious young attorney who was trying to build a "mill" and who let things get away from him through sloppy business practices and mismanagement.

"No question he did not act as diligently as he should have," White told the jury during opening statements, asking why Kaplan "would risk everything -- his law career, his business, everything, to willingly participate in such a conspiracy?"

Kaplan, admitted to the bar in 1999 after graduating from New York Law School, started with a small firm practicing immigration, matrimonial and real estate law. After working for another real estate firm in Brooklyn, he and partner Garry Lerner, who is his cousin, started their own practice focusing on real estate.

Kaplan got his foot in the door by becoming the closing agent for one bank. He soon became the agent for another six banks and, at the peak of his practice, did closings for as many as 60 banks.

By 2004, he was doing as many as 10 closings a day, employing teams of paralegals to handle most of the transactions.

In the same building as Lerner & Kaplan on E. 12th Street in Brooklyn, Kaplan built a thriving 10-employee title company, Executive Settlement Services.

"Why send this out? Why not have a title company that I control and all the fees that it generates?" White said to the jury during opening arguments. "Now that's good business, but it's not so good for a lawyer because there is a potential conflict of interest."

There were ethical lapses, he said, and Kaplan "spread himself too thin" because "he couldn't possibly oversee every transaction."

In his summation, White did not mince words, saying Lerner & Kaplan was "run poorly, not well supervised, not managed properly."

"There was too much emphasis on growing the business," he said. "The practice was a mess."

White said that Lipkin, "the ringleader," lied to everyone along the way, the banks, the straw buyers, the other defendants and Kaplan, whom he played for a dummy.

"He was a fool, a total fool," White said. "He was ripe for Lipkin to manipulate and that's what happened. He was duped."

But Weitzman and New convinced the jury that it was impossible for Kaplan to sign off on one document after another on the closings, particularly the West 98th Street property, without knowing, or at least consciously avoiding, the truth.

Weitzman compared Kaplan to the three monkeys who hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil.

Sunny Shue, died Saturday June 26, 2010. Video that Sunny did on April 9 2010, asking for protection from Judge Joseph Golia. Wednesday...

September 2, 2009 Hearing With Senator John Sampson on Judicial Accountability in New York State

We went to a Hearing with Senator John Sampson on September 24, 2009 on the New York Judicial Syatem. A few people were able to speak, and many others signed up to speak at a later date...that Sampson never scheduled.

First published in print: Monday, January 11, 2010
Here we thought that the first order of business this year for state Senate Democratic leader John Sampson would be to help regain that institution's credibility by passing radical ethics reforms.

The need for them would seem to be brutally obvious, in the wake of the conviction of former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno on federal corruption charges and Governor Paterson's calls for requiring state officials members to disclose their outside income. First, though, Mr. Sampson has joined a large Manhattan law firm where one of the founding partners is on the board of the state Trial Lawyers Association.
That's right. Mr. Sampson now works not only for the people of New York, but also for the firm of Belluck & Fox, according to a New York Post report.

His salary in the former position is a matter of public record, of course -- $88,500. His salary in his new job, however, is something Mr. Sampson isn't about to disclose.

Just as New Yorkers need to learn more about legislators' outside interests, Mr. Sampson offers them less.

Imagine, then, what people might think if this is one more year when the Legislature fails to pass ethics laws. Or if it does, only a watered down version of what's need to clean up an institution where criminal indictments and convictions have become too commonplace?

What were Mr. Sampson's priorities, they might wonder -- transparency in government, or shielding from both his own finances and Belluch & Fox's clients?

The same questions might be asked as well of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who holds a position of counsel to another Manhattan law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg. Little is known by the public about that arrangement, too, thanks to the alarmingly inadequate financial disclosure requirements for legislators that Mr. Silver seems to think are entirely adequate. We know he works for that particular firm, one of the largest tort law firms in New York, but we don't know what the nature of his work is, or on whose behalf he does it.

That will become all the more relevant in the event someone else in the Legislature tries to push for rewriting the state's medical malpractice laws or otherwise changing tort laws this session. Two of the most powerful people in state government work for law firms closely associated with the leading opponent of such legislation, namely the Trial Lawyers Association.

In Mr. Silver's case, he rather famously said of his legal work a half-dozen years ago, "I don't think it's a conflict. How many times do you want to hear this?"

In Mr. Sampson's case, the word comes from his office that his outside work won't interfere with his official duties.

Not exactly endorsements of ethics reform, are they?

THE ISSUE:

The state Senate Democratic leader has another job, too, not that he wants to talk about it.

THE STAKES:

When ethics reform is a major issue, how serious is he about stronger financial disclosure requirements?

Electronic Libraries and FOIA Links

Accountability is the Key

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Victims-of-Law

Who is a Victim-of-Law?Victims-of-Law are persons who have been subjected to tyrannical or arbitrary rulings or edicts in violation of constitutional and civil rights under the democratic maxim reminiscent of our Republic -- the "Rule of Law"

The victims of unethical and corrupt lawyers, judges and employees of the state and federal judiciary demand accountability from those who abuse the power of office while they remain absolutely immune. The media as well as the legislative and executive branches of government traditionally ignore these abuses. The judicial branch itself hurls insults at the victim claiming they are nothing more than a 'disgruntled litigant' while ignoring substantive allegations.

It is essential to empower the victims of legal abuses. Our strength is in our numbers thus the more people that demand their constitutional and civil rights the quicker they will be attained.

What most people do not comprehend is that judges are immune from civil lawsuits. If a judge unlawfully imprisoned someone or maliciously denied due process in a case that cost a litigant millions of dollars, it doesn't matter. There is no redress for the aggrieved person.

The emotional and physical health problems inherent in these abuses are now coming to light but the judicial branches throughout our country continue to avoid or deliberately ignore what they have helped to create.

This website hopes to publish documented proof of many of the deliberate violations of the 'rule of law, the doctrine upon which our Constitutional Republic is based.

This website hopes to publish documented proof of many of the deliberate violations of the 'rule of law, the doctrine upon which our Constitutional Republic is based.

What is the "Rule of Law"? Equality and the Law

The right to equality before the law, or equal protection of the law as it is often phrased, is fundamental to any just and democratic society. Whether rich or poor, ethnic majority or religious minority, political ally of the state or opponent--all are entitled to equal protection before the law.

The democratic state cannot guarantee that life will treat everyone equally, and it has no responsibility to do so. However, writes constitutional law expert John P. Frank, "Under no circumstances should the state impose additional inequalities; it should be required to deal evenly and equally with all of its people."

No one is above the law, which is, after all, the creation of the people, not something imposed upon them. The citizens of a democracy submit to the law because they recognize that, however indirectly, they are submitting to themselves as makers of the law. When laws are established by the people who then have to obey them, both law and democracy are served.

The Supreme CourtThe Framers considered the rule of law essential to the safekeeping of social order and civil liberties. The rule of law holds that if our relationships with each other and with the state are governed by a set of rules, rather than by a group of individuals, we are less likely to fall victim to authoritarian rule. The rule of law calls for both individuals and the government to submit to the law's supremacy. By precluding both the individual and the state from transcending the supreme law of the land, the Framers constructed another protective layer over individual rights and liberties. --Reprinted from U.S. Dept. of State

Judicial Immunity is AbsoluteIn an unprecedented degree of 'abuse of power' judges decreed themselves absolutely immune from civil suit when they are "acting maliciously and corruptly." In 1996 the 104th Congress passed the Federal Courts Improvement Act amending the Civil Rights statute to give further immunities to malicious and corrupt judges.

Sec. 309. Prohibition against awards of costs, including attorney's fees, and injunctive relief against a judicial officer.28 USC 2412 note.>> for Costs.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no judicial officer shall be held liable for any costs, including attorney's fees, in any action brought against such officer for an act or omission taken in such officer's judicial capacity, unless such action was clearly in excess of such officer's jurisdiction.(b) Proceedings in Vindication of Civil Rights.--Section 722(b) of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1988(b)) is amended by inserting before the period at the end thereof "except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer's judicial capacity such officer shall not be held liable for any costs, including attorney's fees, unless such action was clearly in excess of such officer's jurisdiction".

(c) Civil Action for Deprivation of Rights.--Section 1979 of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1983) is amended by inserting before the period at the end of the first sentence: ``, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer's judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable''.

Advocate for truth and An End To Judicial Immunity

About Betsy Combier

Reporter, paralegal, advocate,I will investigate, search on the internet and in all data bases for information that will help a person in need of resolution to a problem.I believe in substantive and procedural due process for all individuals, groups and organizations and trademarked the term "e-accountability" to describe the purpose of my work. I am the parent of four daughters.

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Who is John Libecci?

On Sunday, August 16, 2009, a friend of a friend called me at approximately 2:10PM, a Mr. John Libecci. Mr. Libecci is, I understand, a private investigator who knows a friend of mine socially. I asked whether he could help me find out some information involving my federal court case filed in United States District court on June 8, 2009 involving the Surrogate Court and my mother's Will. After I told him about the property being taken by the court, he told me that the court never takes property without a reason; after I told him that the Will was never probated since I filed the Will (of my mom) on March 17, 1998), Mr. Libecci told me that "obviously the Will was not done right", and said that he worked for the Courts and the Judges. He would not tell me what he did for the Court and the judges, then hung up. If anyone has information about Mr. John Libecci please email me at betsy@parentadvocates.org. You may send me any information anonymously.